Category: News (Demo)

This morning I took part in a so called “book breakfast” at Rabén & Sjögren. Oskar Kroon, Lena Ollmark, Fabian Göranson, Daniel “Puppet” Blomqvist, Stef Gaines and myself gave short presentations about our newly released books and talked about our work in general.

It was fun (and I got to feel out of my comfort zone) to meet members of the press, bookstagrammers, librarians and others over sandwiches and coffee.

I was interviewed by local newspaper Mitt i Stockholm about “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!” and how it is, in some ways,  influenced by my experience from games. I think the reporter Märta Lefvert and photographer Sacharias Källdén captured me and my story in a very good and positive way. Want to read it, please click this link.

Quote from the article:

“– Jag ville framför allt berätta en fängslande och rolig historia men det är förstås roligt om boken också kan väcka samtal om gränserna mellan rädsla och fascination och mellan sanning och påhitt, säger Samir Belarbi.”

Today I visited the radio station P4 Stockholm to talk  about “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!”. If you want to listen to me ramble about how I came up with the narrative idea and about the differencies between creating images for games and books, please go 45′ in to the show. 

Found out yesterday that the library in Lumparland, the smallest commune on the island of Åland, have ordered “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!” to their public library.

It feels surreal, but at the same time it makes me happy that the 372 inhabitants of Lumparland, a place outside of Sweden, will be able to read what I have written and illustrated. I sincerely hope the kids there will enjoy it and be able to relate to the story. 

My book “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig” got a great review by Maria Nestorzon in the purchase guide for the Swedish Libraries (BTJ – Bibliotekstjänst). She writes  that my way of writing is fast paced and that it is easy to get caught up in and mesmerized by the story, that there is a lot of humour in the images, that I have an unique expression and that the book is entertaining.

Couldn’t be more happy to read these inspiring words and I hope this will have a positive effect on book sales to the Swedish libraries. Below is two quotes from the review, in Swedish.

“Samir Belarbis språk är rappt och det är mycket lätt att fångas och fängslas.”  ” Även i bilderna, som ackompanjeras av charmiga barnteckningar, finns mycket humor och ett alldeles eget uttryck. Det är intelligent berättat – med ett stort plus för den oväntade upplösningen – och mycket underhållande.”

My book, soon to be published by Rabén & Sjögren, is print ready. I just sent the final tweaks to the editor. The title will be “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!”, which roughly translates to “The tiger is going to eat me alive!”.

The release is set to September 2021.